Quest for the Best: A Reno Story
by Ariel Hayes
Summary: Reno,Rude, and Elena have to go to the mall to get do some last minute shopping for Rufus's birthday, but Reno has some trouble with the people in the mall and there is even more unknown trouble that the turks have to face later on....story halfway comple


Ariel: Hello everybody! This is fanfic that was inspired by a forum thread I'm apart of on I hope you like it!

Warren: Ahem, As Ariel's official disclaimer person I will now do the disclaimer. Ariel Hayes does not own Final Fantasy VII, SquareEnix or any of its characters. Heck, she barely owns me. So suing us would be pointless, as we have no money. Oh, and words in italic outside of the " "'s mean thoughts of the character. Although, we'll probably also do some thoughts outside of the italics too…it's a crapshoot…

Ariel: Read-&-Review-and-on-with-the-fic!

Quest for the Best: A Reno Story

Little sun beams streaked through the cracks in the window blinds and spread out through a broken down and messy apartment. Chinese take-out boxes, empty pizza containers, plastic bags, a dirty white shirt (which somehow had found its way up on top of the fan), and an assortment of papers made their home here. It was almost unthinkable that an actual human being lived in this chaos, and the only space in the room that wasn't a wreck was a small path that weaved it's way in-between the warzone that was known as Reno's apartment.

Reno stirred only slightly as the light hit him through the open door of his bedroom. "Damn sun…" He rolled over and sunk his head into the pillow to block the sun from his vision. The sharp ring of the telephone next to his bed put an end to his fight for sleep though. Reno rolled back over and stretched out for the phone and tipped the handset off of its base. As soon as it fell off Reno grabbed it with the hand that had knocked it over with and placed it to his ear. _This had better not be a wrong number _he thought. "Hello?…" A tired redhead said into the phone. " Hello Reno, This is Tseng." Replied the Turk's leader on the other side of the phone. "Oh! Uh, Good morning sir!" _Shit, It's Tseng, what did I do this time! _ A call from Tseng could only mean two things: There's a new mission, or Reno was in trouble. More often than not it was part of the later. "Reno, it's not morning… It's noon." "I knew that… So, what are you callin' for?" Reno shifted himself into a sitting position on his bed.

"I'm calling to remind you that it is Rufus's birthday today. I'm expecting all of the Turks to show up with a gift and throw a small party for him this afternoon." Reno's mouth dropped and he was thrown into a state of silent surprise for a few seconds. "Reno? Are you still there?" "Yeah, I am." Tseng sighed on the other end of the line and responded, "Please don't get anything too…obscene." Reno relaxed again and told his boss sarcastically, " Tseng… You have some _amazing_ timing ya' know…" "Good bye Reno."

Reno heard the click on the other side of the phone line and hung up as well. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "Today's gonna be one long day." _How in the world am I supposed to get anything that Rufus likes? I don't even know what the spoiled-brat likes. He's just my boss, and that's that. Although, Tseng would kill me if I didn't get the guy something. Well, too bad I can't get him a couple of strippers or something. _He grinned at the thought of Rufus and Tseng's reactions to a couple of strippers busting into the room. _Too bad…it would have been good. _

He slid himself over to the side of the mattress and stood up from the bed. He pulled his arms up over his head, stretched, and let both arms fall back limply to his sides. Reno scooted through the mess of his apartment nudging random unrecognizable objects aside with his feet as he went towards the kitchen in his boxers. _Where the hell's the coffee?_ He thought as he went through the cupboards looking for anything resembling caffeine substances. After the morning ritual of donuts, coffee, clothes, some hygiene related stuff and deodorant, he headed out the door grabbing his Electro-mag-rod from a small table by the door, and licked the last remnants of donut sugar from his hands while going down the hall.

Inside of the elevator Reno quickly hit the button for the lobby floor and slouched back on the metal reflective surface of the elevator. The good thing about working for ShinRa was that you'd never have to worry about living in the slums or somewhere like that. Even after the fall of ShinRa there was still a large amount of money saved up in accounts across Gaia. Although, how long will that money last now that the company has fallen? _Hm… Wonder what I'd do if I wasn't a Turk? Can't return to stealing and crime. That's just not classy, and you always have somebody on your tail. Heh, maybe I could become a bounty hunter. Then I'd be doing the chasing, and the excitement's worth it. _The elevator came to a sudden stop, and shook Reno from his thoughts as it hit the next floor with a ding. When the metal doors slid open a tall man dressed in a clean black suit with dark sunglasses stood in front of Reno.

"Hey buddy!" Reno said cheerfully with a salute. "…Hello." Replied the taller man as he stepped into the elevator. "So, Rude. Did Tseng call you too?" asked Reno as he glanced over to Rude. "Yes, he called earlier though. Elena wanted to go to the mall together at 12:15 to pick up gifts there." Rude said almost in a briefing fashion to Reno. Reno cringed a little at the word mall. A mall meant there'd be crowds. A crowd meant there'd be people, and most likely there'd be several with a bunch of loud bratty kids complaining about how they want some stupid toy at the cash register and hold up the line. "So, is ol' Tseng coming too?" asked Reno. "No, he has already bought a gift…. Think of this as a mission." " Good. Let's just get this over with then." The elevator hit the ground floor and sounded another ding as the doors slid open again.

Elena was already waiting next to a blue and green striped chair with her arms crossed and tapping her foot with a somewhat disgruntled look stuck on her face. "It took you two long enough!" she said as she shifted her weight to the other side and gave them a disapproving look. "Yeah, whatever. It's Tseng's fault anyways for not calling me earlier." Reno responded as he wandered out of the elevator with Rude. "Tseng has nothing to do with you over sleeping." Elena "Didn't you listen to me yesterday? I mentioned that we should probably do something for Rufus's birthday. Which, by the way, is today." Reno shook his head. "Great, so it's the rookie that gave him the idea to do this." Reno replied with a smirk. "Rookie! I'll have you know that I've gone through just about enough with the two of you to not be considered a rookie anymore. I even got kidnapped!" "Only a rookie would be slow enough to actually get kidnapped." "Oh, and I suppose you never got captured by anybody?" "Coarse not, I'm just too good for them." Reno grinned and walked over to Elena, "Besides 'lena, you'll always be our wittle rookie wookie." Reno teased in a cutesy tone as he pinched her cheeks like a Jewish aunt during family reunion.

Suddenly there was a thunderous clapping sound as Elena released her slap of fury like none on Gaia had ever seen before right on Reno's face. And thus, Reno submitted to the slap of doom and fell down onto the ground. Rude nudged his sunglasses up his nose a little, coughed into his glove, then glanced down at his fallen partner shaking his head a little. "…He never learns…" Rude whispered to himself. "Come on Rude, let's go." Said Elena as she looked over to the taller man. Rude nodded and took Reno by the legs and dragged him off towards the van that would soon head off to the mall.

Ariel: Yey! That was fun to write! I could only ever write this at night though. / Maybe I'm nocturnal? Well, anyways… I hope you all enjoyed it. The second Chapter should come soon. It'll be called "Mall trouble" The trouble with the mall is a secret though. ;D only the forum group I'm on may have any idea of what I mean by "trouble"

Warren: Don't forget to read and review the story.


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